it's thursday and winter is a'coming...

This is where I stopped last night after an interrupted afternoon. I want this one to be very much a day-time painting, but the problem that that gives me is the huge expanse of blue, not a colour that sits well in most homes. Clouds are the obvious answer, but I need enough sunlight to throw a light on the ruins and trees. I don't want the clouds to dominate, nor to be such that they demand shadows across the land. Hopefully with this approach one can imagine that there is plenty of blue sky behind the viewer and no need for cloud shadows.
Also, by extending the composition to include the restored tower I have a big expanse of trees. These are a mixture of bigger trees and olives. They need to carry a lot of light to maintain the summery feeling I want in this work. I have sketched them in quickly, and now must decide on how much importance they can have without over-balancing the "weights" of the parts of the painting.

Trees blocked in:

And underpainted:Lunch time! (Yes, Jackerd, my day is still punctuated by food stops! Still on the mangia, heading for prega, and eventually... chi sa?)
4.30, stopping for fading light and taking a break. It's just not going so well this afternoon. Even the trees don't want to be painted... that's it for a while, need to get back on track somehow, but it's not been a great painting day! Twice visited by a very peaceful but scary, big and potentially dangerous bee so I'm closing the doors and windows for the evening.

Today I am grateful for exhibition offers.